Criticism Is a Sign of Success

expect to come your way once you start hitting it big.

Criticism is defined as the judgment of the merits and faults of the work or actions of one individual by another. Although “criticizing” does not necessarily mean “to imply fault,” the word is often taken to mean prejudice or disap- proval. The dictionary fails to include the following helpful bit of information: When you start taking the right amount of action and therefore creating success, criticism is often not far behind.

Of course, most people don’t like being criticized. However, I’ve found that it comes as a natural result of getting

attention. This may be why some people avoid attention in the first place—as an attempt to dodge judgment. However, there’s no way to achieve serious levels of success without getting some attention. Yes, people will eye you and make it clear that they disapprove of what you’re doing. Let’s face it: No matter what choices you make in life, someone is going to criticize you somewhere along the way. Wouldn’t you rather receive it from people who are jealous of your success than from your family, boss, or bill collectors for not taking enough action?

When you start taking enough action, it won’t be long before you’re judged by people who aren’t taking any. If you’re generating substantial success, people will start to pay attention to you. Some will admire you, some will want to learn from you, but unfortunately, most will envy you. These are the people whose excuses for not doing enough will morph into reasons why what you are doing is wrong.

You need to expect and anticipate this as one of the signs of success. It will come when you start really cranking at 10X levels—often before your accomplishment is even evident. Beware: This criticism can come in many forms. It may first show up as advice from others: “Why are you spending so much energy on that one client? He never buys anything” or “You should enjoy life more! It’s not all work, you know.” These are the kinds of things that people say to you to make themselves feel better—because your abundance highlights their deficiency. Remember: Success is not a popularity contest. It is your duty, obligation, and responsibility.

A buddy of mine who is in the fence business in Louisiana once admitted to me, “Grant, I don’t want atten- tion. The minute I get it, competitors start coming after me. I want to fly under the radar so no one knows what I’m doing.” Although that’s certainly one way to approach success, you can’t “fly under the radar” for too long and expect to ever make it to the top. Laying low in order to avoid attention (and conse- quently, criticism) probably means that you’re holding yourself

back to some degree. Your fear of being attacked is keeping you from going for it completely. However, once the naysayers realize and acknowledge that you aren’t going away—and that your success is something they should imitate, not judge—they will give up and find someone else to pick on.

Weak and overwhelmed individuals respond to others’ success by attacking it. The moment you elect to dominate or acquire territory, you run the risk of becoming a target for these people. You see this in politics constantly; when neither side has a real solution, they merely criticize and lay into one another—and that doesn’t do anyone any good. Criticism of any individual or group should signal to the recipient that the person flinging mud is threatened by the entity he or she is belittling. People who habitually disparage others like this usually do not have solutions to their situation—except to degrade other players.

The only way to handle criticism is to foresee it as an element of your success formula. Much like fear, it’s a sign that you are making the right moves in the right volumes, get- ting enough attention, and making enough of a splash. One of my clients recently called my company to complain that my staff had been following up with him too aggressively. I called to ask him what the problem was. After listening to him malign my employees for doing what was essentially their job, I said, “Knock it off. They’re simply doing what they know is right because they know we can help you. The fact that you haven’t made a decision to move forward and pull the trig- ger is what should be criticized here—but I will refrain from doing so because it won’t do either of us any good. Now, let’s stop the negativity and do something positive to move your company forward.” I then rewarded my staff for aggressively following up with the client. Receiving complaints about “too much follow-up” is an indication that my staff is moving in the right direction. I refused to allow this client’s protests to stop us and supported my staff in their efforts. We all under- stand that criticism is part of the success cycle, and I won’t

apologize for any employee of mine who is seeking success. And in case you were wondering—we did close the deal. This very same client now tells people with admiration and praise that “those guys follow up like maniacs.”

When I finished college, I got a full-time sales job rather than taking a position in the area in which I had received my degree. Within a couple of years, my sales results had taken me to the top 1 percent of all the salespeople in that industry—and way ahead of the people with whom I worked directly. And if you think they didn’t criticize me—well, think again. Of course they did! They made jokes about me, poked fun, tried to distract me, and even tried to convince me to cease the very actions that had gotten me to where I was. That is what lower performers do; they make others wrong for doing what is necessary in order to make themselves feel okay about doing nothing! The highest performers—the winners—respond by studying successful people and duplicat- ing success. They train themselves to reach top performers’ levels. Because the lower performers are not willing to step up and take responsibility to increase their production, they can only seek to tear down those who are performing at higher levels.

When my book If You’re Not First, You’re Last hit the New York Times best-seller list, some of my supposed competi- tors immediately began criticizing me. One person called the book’s title “arrogant.” Another asked, “Who does Cardone think he is?” Yet another suggested that I was “getting too big for [my] own good.” One person even called me to tell me to get a new editor because he claimed that the grammar was wrong. Did I pay attention to any of these comments? Not for a second. I had a New York Times best-seller!

From what I can tell, criticism precedes admiration and— like it or not—goes hand in hand with success. Keep pouring on the success, and sooner or later, the very same people who were putting you down will be admiring you for what you have done. Those who initially judged your actions will later

be singing your praises—just as long as you take the criticism as a sign of your growing success and keep the accelerator on your actions at 10X. After all, what better way to retaliate against criticism than to keep succeeding?

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Date: 2016-04-22; view: 670